UnCorked
  • Home
  • The Blog
  • Who and Why
  • Contact Me

Cutting Costs Has a Price

2/24/2014

1 Comment

 
I read this post over on Jezebel a few weeks ago, and while it is maybe a little sensationalized (what with the box of wine labeled "fillers," and all,) I actually wholeheartedly agree with, and often espouse the mantra that where wine is concerned, cheaper ain't always better. (In fact, most often, cheaper is worse.)   It may not taste noticeably worse to you, but there are reasons beyond taste to avoid the well-known-cleverly-rhyming wine from one of my favorite grocery chains and its ilk...


The reason you can buy wine for $2 a bottle is that it likely uses inferior fruit- the growers grow as many grapes per vine as they can, meaning the flavors and nutrients in each berry are less concentrated (a poor vine can only spread its nutrients so thin.) These nutrients wind up becoming things like sugar, acid, and flavor and color compounds. So if there are fewer of them, the quality of the juice that goes into making the wine suffers. 


Furthermore, these mass-produced wineries don't take very good care of the fruit during/after it is picked. It is often machine harvested by machines that come along and shake the vines until the berries fall off. They don't sort out the twigs, moldy, shriveled, or unripe berries. Often, a mechanical sorter will kind of shake out the worst of the twigs and leaves, but not all. This debris, along with the inferior fruit, all gets made into your wine. 


The juice from these berries is often fermented and stored in ENORMOUS tanks. Think this vs this. There is literally almost no way any sort of artistic slant could be put on wines in these tanks. There is therefore likely to be an almost bland consistency with these mass produced wines. They have a chemical formula basically- a ratio of sugar to acid to tannins that they aim for. They test the juice, tinker with it, make additions to get it to the right formula, and bottle it to get it to you. A 2011 will taste the same as a 2012 which will probably taste the same as the same wine made in 2001. They are not going for vintage variability and craft- consistency is all. 


While fine, handcrafted wines may be aged in oak barrels (expensive suckers, those oak barrels, especially when you consider they don't hold much compared to those tanks above) these mass produced wines, as the Jezebel author mentioned, probably get their oak flavor from chips or sawdust. They dump a bunch of oak dust in there, wait, strain it out and call it a day. 


So these are all quality issues, which honestly, you may not be able to taste when all is said and done (though I argue that in a side-by-side blind comparison, the differences between handcrafted and mass-produced wines are clear) but there are other things at play- like helping the economy of wherever your wine is made. These large wineries charge less because they cut out a LOT of labor. Hire someone to carefully pick only the best grapes? Someone to sort out the bad fruit and the sticks and stuff? No thanks. That's what MACHINES are for. Buy a bottling line that requires humans to run it (something smaller wineries are forced to do as they cannot afford automatic ones)? No thanks. That's why we buy ROBOTS! Pay a highly skilled artisan to make oak barrels (a person known as a cooper, BTW)? Nah. We'll just put sawdust in it. 
Everything is automated. From production to quality control. Vine to bottle.

So, what to do? Maybe you don't want to drink a $40 bottle of wine on a Tuesday night with dinner. I get it. I don't either, much of the time. That's ok! There's usually a middle-road. Instead of your drugstore $4 usual offering, why don't you look in the $15-20 range? Sure, you might not be able to crank through a bottle a night, but should you really be doing that anyway? Hmmm? (raises eyebrow...) By the time you hit $15-20, you're able to shop wines from smaller producers, often with a vintage listed on the bottle- and 2010 will mean something. It won't taste like 2008. Likely, it was made in a real barrel, tasted and tinkered with by a real person, the grapevines pruned and picked by real people, bottled by a real person (like me!) and it will probably have more character, nuance, and complexity of flavor than its $4 cousin. Try a side-by-side comparison and see if you don't believe me. 


I could keep going on and on, but this post is already onerously long, so I'll refrain. But if you have any questions or comments, let me know! 


Cheers (and remember, don't be a cheapskate!)
1 Comment

Rare But Tasty- Fie Gris

2/11/2014

0 Comments

 
We've been talking a lot about rare or unusual varietals at work lately, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share a little info about one of my faves. 
Depending on where you live, and what kind of wine stores you have access to, you might have a hard time finding Fie Gris. But if you can, it's worth it. (It's so unusual, it doesn't even have a wikipedia page!)


Fie Gris is thought to be an ancient ancestor of Sauvignon Blanc and is, to this day, really only grown in France's Loire Valley. Furthermore, not many winemakers are making 100% Fie Gris wines, let alone exporting them (I'll give you a few to look for below.) However, if you can find them, you won't be sorry! 


Like Sauvignon Blanc, Fie Gris is often juicy and full of fruit, though has much less fruitiness than many American and Australian Sauvignon Blancs, and no grassiness of South African SB. It is lightly perfumy, crisp, and tart- making it a lovely summer wine, but also a great food wine. Because most of the soil in the Loire is pretty flinty, they also get a touch of mineral flavor to them (not a BS wine term, I promise- think of licking a wet stone.) 


If you feel like stepping outside the box and trying a new, unusual variety, give Fie Gris a shot. It's delicious and worth the hunt. Don't believe me? Ask my parental units! My stepsister gifted my mom and stepdad a bottle at Christmas, which they thoroughly enjoyed- so much so, they say they may be ruined on Chardonnay- something I never thought possible!


Here are a few to look out for at your local wine shop (we've carried both, and the internet seems to tell me they're out there in other places too.) 
Prey et Fils  
Eric Chevalier (incidentally, the importer, Kermit Lynch tends to import great stuff. Dependably really good. If you see his name, it's a good bet it'll be a tasty bottle.) I have a bottle of this stuff in the fridge, waiting for a special occasion! We'll pretty much never carry it again at the shop, so I feel glad I snagged a bottle! 


Let me know if you try any and what you think- also, if there are any other good versions out there that you know of, let me know! 


Cheers!
0 Comments

California Dreamin'

2/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Well, as Chicago moves from Polar Vortex number two and into yet another Winter Storm Warning, I think we're all channeling the Mamas and the Papas, just a little bit... 
Picture
Lucky for me (and thanks to an abundance of airline miles to redeem,) I managed a little escape last week to the Bay Area- not long enough, but it'll get me by. It was a great trip out to visit an old pal from high school- we ate lots of great food, spent an afternoon in The Haight, and best of all, took a little trip up to Sonoma! The highlights included a stay in lovely Petaluma, dinner on the square in downtown Sonoma, and, of course, wine tasting! Though it was my first trip to Sonoma, I was lucky enough to have a relatively seasoned tour guide, along with some recommendations from friends and colleagues (thanks, Mindy and Mark!) 


The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful with sunshine and rolling hills- just what the doctor ordered to combat the winter blahs. Our three stops were pretty spread out, which allowed for lots of sightseeing, and moderate tasting. We started the day at Lambert Bridge Winery where we tasted a pretty wide variety of reds. We saw lots of Zinfandel growing on the way up, which I'm usually not a fan of- but I have to say, their Zin was balanced and tasty- not the fruit bomb I was expecting! The wines were pretty good (though I thought the prices were inflated for the quality) and the tasting room was gorgeous! 


Next we headed out into the absolute middle of nowhere (dirt one-way road) to Iron Horse Vineyards. We carry some of Iron Horse's wines at the store, and my boss wholeheartedly recommended we visit. I decided to not let myself be put off by the fact that Reagan commissioned their wines for the summit with Russia. They are known for their sparklings, and they were very tasty. Though I was really surprisingly impressed by their Pinots! Though I'm not normally the biggest fan of pinot, several of theirs were medium-bodied and spicy. Yum! If they hadn't been a little out of my budget, I'd have brought one home with me. As was, I brought home a bottle of Blanc de Blancs made for National Geographic. $4 went toward coastal reef preservation- how could I resist? Also, it tasted good. 

Picture
Next, we headed towards downtown Sonoma to hit up Gundlach Bundschu. Their grounds were gorgeous and many of their wines quite tasty! They were much more affordable, and hoppin' at the end of the day. If I'd had more room in my suitcase, a bottle of their Tempranillo would've come home with me. It was priced perfectly, spicy, but with a really great tannin/acid balance. Me likey! 


All in all, I wish I'd had five more days to laze around the region, eating and drinking wine. The temps in the low 70s were AMAZING. But, it's nice to have a place to dream on going back to! Plans for the future! 


And, if any of y'all have any recommendations for other Sonoma gems, let me know in the comments! You know, for next time! (Brewery recommendations also accepted!)


Cheers- stay warm out there! 
0 Comments
    Wanna receive updates in your inbox?
    Enter your Email:
    Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz

    Author

    I'm a wine-loving actress in the Windy City who holds certificates in Enology and Viticulture from Washington State University. I also own a hilarious cat.

    Archives

    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    101 The Basics
    Alcohol Content
    Grape Growing
    Media/Pop Culture
    Pests And Diseases
    Sugars
    Tasting
    Vocab
    Wine Making

    RSS Feed